Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Holdings Cut by Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,455 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 236 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $864,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $47,000. D.B. Root & Company LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 1,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 6,712 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,353,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Wendell David Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Wendell David Associates Inc. now owns 28,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,131,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares during the period. Finally, Traynor Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. now owns 713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $251,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $362.76 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $357.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $346.75. The stock has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.